New £1.2m bakery planned in Prestonpans

Alice Cooke
· 08 January, 2016

Peter and Graeme Ford plan to bring The Premium Bakery to East Lothian after outgrowing their current premises in Loanhead.

Peter founded The Premium Bakery in 2007, having sold Prestonpans-based Ford's The Bakers in 1999. He and son Graeme, joint directors of The Premium Bakery, said they needed to expand and saw it as “an opportunity to come home”.

Graeme continued: "We currently employ 27 staff but have outgrown our current premises. We will be doubling the size of our bakery and creating more jobs. It is a chance for the family business to return home."

A planning application for the new building, which is just yards from the original site and will have 1,100 square metres of floor space, has been submitted to East Lothian Council.

Ford's was sold by the family to Lyndale Foods in 1999. It was on the verge of closure in 2010 before a buyer was found and it was taken over by the Scullions Wholesale Bakery, a subsidiary of the McGhee Group.

Liquidator Tom Hughes, partner at Gerber Landa & Gee chartered accountants told British Baker at the time that this was in the hope that it could reverse the bakery’s trading losses and make it profitable. But in 2011 it was placed into liquidation, with 35 staff made redundant, and around 25 moved to the restructured Ford Bakery business within the McGhee’s Bakery Group.